"logical" flying car WIP

A set of doodles based on the question "why should a flying car look like a road car?"

Ditched the ducted fans on the assumption that the car uses an antigravity lifting engine and some sort of reactionless drive; this way you get to keep the sleek lines.

For neatness, I think the antigrav and drive will be under the floor; therefore the next pic needs a thicker underfloor.  Also, windscreen wipers seem a bit off for the high tech aesthetic, so I think self-cleaning super-hydrophobic glass is indicated for the windscreen.

Henry Moore Golem Turnaround WIP

So, although the HMG is fully modelled and poseable, there was one big problem with it - render time.  Since it was all done with displacement maps, it took far too long to render a frame for it to be practical to do a turnaround.  So, I switched to a combination of Displacement and Normal mapping:

It's not quite as detailed as before, but you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference, and the reduction in render time more than makes up for it.

Before - took just over 30 minutes to do the colour pass (all displacement)

After - took 41 seconds to do the colour pass on this image (2 levels less subdivision + normal mapping)

Henry Moore Golem

All rigged and poseable.  Also, features one of the coolest render-passes I've seen so far -

Henry Moore Golem WIP 6

Fully textured, although I'm not entirely happy with the moss; I may go back and add more

Henry Moore Golem WIP 5

The torso is now fully textured, showing the glowing carvings.

Henry Moore Golem WIP 4

Sculpting complete - next step, texturing

Henry Moore Golem WIP 3

Henry Moore Golem WIP 2

The more eagle-eyed among you may notice that the carvings on the head are subtly different - this is because I had to tweak the UVs slightly in order to reduce distortion; as a result I had to restart the sculpting.  Fortunately, I only lost the work I'd already done on the head, and the lessons learned mean I should get a better result overall.

Henry Moore Golem WIP

Spent most of today trying to get to grips with the idiosyncracies of floating-point displacement maps (once you get used to them, it's certainly easier than the old 8-bit format); I did at least manage to get the head done for use as a test.

The eventual plan is for the engravings to glow with the magic that animates the golem.

Henry Moore Mecha Modelled

I liked the shapes of the Henry Moore Mecha from the speedpaint challenge, so I decided to have a go at modelling it. 

Total poly count - 1437 polygons

Looking at it now, I think it'd make a great stone-golem type creature, with moss and carved details - in addition it will be a great chance to hone my Mudbox skills.

Erratic Discovery

More digital painting practice, inspired by photos of glaciers & fjords etc.